Steve Jobs Won’t Influence The Upcoming Apple/Samsung Trial

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you already know that Apple and Samsung, the largest electronics corporations in the world, are waging a legal war in several countries with complaints towards each other for patent violations as they battle for domination in the market for mobile devices.

Before Steve Jobs died last year, he made a few statements to his biographer about Apple’s intellectual property, saying he was willing to go “thermonuclear” to “destroy” Google’s operation system. So far, I think that’s backfired on them.

Seeking to introduce the statement in court, Samsung argued in a filing that the statements by Jobs “speaks to Apple’s bias, improper motives and its lack of belief in its own claims in that they are a means to an end, namely the destruction of Android.” However, Apple argued in a court filing that Jobs’ quotes are an unreasonable distraction, and asked that they be barred from trial.

At a hearing in a San Jose, California federal court that took place on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh said Jobs’ statements were irrelevant. “I really don’t think this is a trial about Steve Jobs,” Judge Koh said.

Apple sued Samsung last year, claiming the South Korean company blatantly copies its designs for the iPhone and iPad. Samsung denied the accusations and decided to countersue. The trial of all of this madness is scheduled to begin on July 30. Apple has won the pretrial mandate against the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the Galaxy Nexus phone already. Samsung is appealing both mandates

On Wednesday, Judge Koh ruled that the evidence about Apple’s operations in China could be discussed, but would not be looked at as a human rights violation. Evidence of Samsung’s taxes paid in the U.S. could be discussed too, Judge Koh ruled, but Apple would not be able to make any suggestions of tax avoidance from Samsung.